Franco Partly Remakes Friedkin’s “Cruising”

James Franco’s pre-occupation with gay artists and sex is continuing with word of his latest collaboration trying something ambitious.

Franco has teamed with esoteric erotic film director Travis Mathews on a installation/film project that attempts to re-create 40 minutes of excised and destroyed footage from William Friedkin’s notorious 1980 thriller “Cruising” says The Playlist.

Al Pacino starred in the original as an NYPD officer who goes undercover in the pre-AIDS late 70’s Manhattan gay S&M scene to catch a serial killer.

Friedkin’s film was hardcore in its day with some explicit depictions of gay sex including an infamous club scene where an extra in the background gets fisted in a sling.

Franco originally wanted to remake the film but couldn’t get the rights. Instead he and Mathews set about making this reconstruction of the lost 40 minutes, going so far as to interview extras from the original film and featuring real gay sex in the footage which is likely to debut at a gallery show next month.